Beer Scene in Feuerbach-Stuttgart

Yep, he's right here. All crap beer in my book, with Licher being worst offender, Bitburger second worst, and ther others equally bad. I always find it funny when people in the other threads say how wonderful these are. It's like saying the pastrami from X supermarket is great, and never having been to NYC delis.

 

Same here.

 

Licher is pretty bad, but I don't mind Köstritzer. Of course I'm also on record as a regular customer of McDonald's, so there's that. Winky Face.

 

You Sir, are a masochist

 

You are right about how many of these "beer geeks" have no taste for subtlety, but that's what I call an unrefined palate, which means you can only taste the most extreme and you haven't honed your palate to the nuances. It reminds me of Japanese rice, which requires an extremely refined palate to appreciate, and explains why most westerners don't get it. A refined palate can not only pick up on subtleties, but also finer points of a complex flavor mix. An unrefined palate is also an immature palate, which goes for extremism as a product of being too easy and lazy and basically requires no experience or wisdom in a breadth of tastes. Kinda like kids liking only super sweet or sour, but hating liver and onions.

For me, when I hear your story, I feel both pity for being so immature and childish in their palate, and wise, knowing they'll grow out of it eventually (if not, they'll be stuck in a permanent childish way of approaching food.), and improve and refine their palate to where they can taste subtle or complex flavors. His ravings for MOAR is the immature unfocused energy and naïveté of youth who think they've reinvented the wheel. Don't judge them too harshly, for we in our wisdom and breadth of experience know what's good. We need headstrong and stupid youth, otherwise, who else could we get to go to war for us, and they push the boundaries of what came before, but don't let them get you down.

 

Good GAWD! We're old.

You'd think we'd have grown up by now.

(I see you found the smilies)

 

That's certainly true, especially when those darn emoticons don't work anymore. Except the ones I know codes for.

 

They still work for me, on my PC, but not from my wife's iPad. I couldn't post pics from there either.

 

Interesting, they still work clean on my home and work Macs.

 

I must say that Bitburger used to be a great, hop-forward beer, and was a decent example of the northern German pilsner style, despite being from the Eifel. It has suffered over the years, dumbed down for the Einheitsbreibewegung (how's that for a German word I just invented?) of the 80's.

 

Excellent new word!!
When was Bitburger a decent example of a northern German Pilsner style though? Not considering, it's not in the north. I'm 31, so let's say 15 years of beer drinking. I always disliked Bitburger. Later, when I started to enjoy real beers, I even started to despise it. Though of late, when forced to drink stuff like this, say at a party at friends, I thought it to be somewhat better than Beck's. That's the two you always get here at private parties.

 

Can't speak for Einhorn's experience, but I remember thinking of it as the typical German Macro sometime in the early 90s, then a friend had it at her house and I was surprised at the good malt character. That character is still there (beats any US macro into the ground), but maybe a little thinner than it used to be.

That's probably typical the world around -- buy the easiest accessible and (probably) cheapest beer for the party... but if you dig deep in the fridge I bet you can swipe good stuff!

 

Apparently the Stubbis taste way better than the normal Bitburger Pils. At least one dude in Moenchengladbach told me that....

 

No, for most people I know Bitburger and especially Beck's is the top of German brewing craft (no pun intended ). So you won't find anything better in their fridges unless I brought it to the party myself.
And another point, they aren't cheap. Especially Beck's is usually around € 15/crate, while a regional Pils like e.g. Pfungstädter is only € 10/crate. And you still have Oettinger with € 7/crate. When I go to a decent Getränkemarkt, a crate of Bavarian or Franconian quality beer might be around € 13-€ 17, so about in the same price range as the big macros. They just don't know what exists and where to look for it.

 

Wow, that's crazy to hear. A "crate" being 12 bottles?

I can't remember the last 12 pack of Beck's that I looked at, but Bitburger is usually pretty low-priced around me -- probably 12 US a 12 pack (12 ounce bottles -- maybe 11.5 ounce).

 

A crate is 20x0,5l. Still cheaper than in the US, but Beck's and Bitburger are "premium" here, so that's what you pay for.

 

Haha too funny. This is common knowledge. Just like Coke from a glass bottle is better. BTW, stubbies only available north of FRA. Down where Stahl lives, they use stubbies as flower vases, not beer. Maybe that's also why Flensburger tastes so good directly from the flip top?

As far as Bit goes, most consider it "premium" beer, which reflects in general in pricing - they worked long and hard to make it the number one gastronomy/on-premise beer (they dethroned Warsteiner in short process). It's an above-average beer, and yes, compared to US macro, it beats the pants off them. Maybe that's the final summation of my liking for Bitburger. I still would like the ur-version with more IBUs and better noble aroma.

 

This gave me a chuckle. Rothaus' own webpage, in German, states that their Pils (500 ml bottles) and the Tannenzäpfle (330 ml bottles) are the same beer, and they have no idea why people think they are different.

FWIW, I'm like 90% certain I've seen Bitburger stubbies here in HD, one hour south of FRA by way of the ICE.

 

Still hoping for an internet sarcasm font...